"...if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). (Council of Orange: Canon 6)

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We are a community of confessing believers who love the gospel of Jesus Christ, affirm the Biblical and Christ-exalting truths of the Reformation such as the five solas, the doctrines of grace, monergistic regeneration, and the redemptive historical approach to interpreting the Scriptures.

Essential Theology

The Whole Gospel to the Whole of Our Lives

The Whole Gospel to the Whole of our Lives- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

D. Martin Lloyd-Jones was one of the most faithful and greatest preachers of the 20th century. Here is a quotation from his sermon on Romans 6. He is speaking concerning the failure to understand the fullness of the gospel to our lives.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones: "People are often unhappy in the Christian life because they have thought of Christianity, and the whole message of the gospel, in inadequate terms. Some think that it is merely a message of forgiveness. You ask them to tell you what Christianity is and they will reply: 'If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven', and they stop at that. That is all. They are unhappy about certain things in their past and they hear God in Christ will forgive them. They take their forgiveness and there they stop- - that is all their Christianity.

There are others who conceive of it as morality only. Their view of themselves is that they do not need forgiveness, but they desire an exalted way of life. They want to do good in this world, and Christianity to them is an ethical, moral program. Such people are bound to be unhappy.

....The gospel is not something partial or piecemeal: it takes in the whole life, the whole of history, the whole world. It tells us about the creation and the final judgment and everything in between. It is a complete, whole view of life, and many are unhappy in the Christian life because they have never realized that this way of life caters for the whole of man's life and covers every eventuality in his experience. There is no aspect of life but that the gospel has something to say about it. The whole of life must come under its influence because it is all-inclusive; the gospel is meant to control and govern everything in our lives...

...We must realize the greatness of the gospel, its vast eternal span. We must dwell more on the riches, and in the riches, of these great doctrinal absolutes. We must not always stay in the gospel. We must start there but we must go on; and then as we see it all worked out and put into its great context we shall realize what a mighty thing the gospel is, and how the whole of our life is meant to be governed by it."

Posted by Charles Biggs on October 8, 2006 09:10 PM

Comments

Great quote. When he said, "We must not always stay in the gospel. We must start there but we must go on", it gave me pause, because Lloyd-Jones, of all people, seemed to always return to the gospel. But then he added, "we shall realize what a mighty thing the gospel is, and how the whole of our life is meant to be governed by it." In other words, we are not to "go on" in terms of seeking something "higher" than the gospel to govern our lives. Rather, he is saying that we simply don't rest in a gospel of past forgiveness of sins, and "sit on our laurels", so to speak. Rather, the gospel is to continue to impact us and govern the whole of our Christian experience.